


My musings on fixing continuity and reboots

by RetrocraftFan (Mislagnissa)



Category: Ben 10 Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Ben 10 Classic, Ben 10 Reboot (2016), Fix-It, Out of Character, Stream of Consciousness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:28:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26087938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mislagnissa/pseuds/RetrocraftFan
Summary: I did not like how the "classic" Ben 10 shows were full of retcons, inconsistencies, filler, seasonal rot, etc. This is a collection of various ideas I had for fixing the messy continuity, which I planned on using in my other fanfiction in this fandom. Putting it all in one place makes it easier to keep track of.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 4





	1. Plumbers vs Galactic Enforcers

Between OS and AF, the plumbers were retconned from a secret USA organization to generic space police because AF showrunner Dwayne McDuffie (bless his heart) never watched OS.

So, yeah, that's not going to be the case in any of my fanfics.

* * *

The Plumbers are a secret USA organization, as per OS. It was founded by George Washington to handle various paranormal threats to the USA.

The "red spots" from UAF and OV I'm going to simply merge with the Galactic Enforcers from OS. (Ultimos, Tini, and Synpatak are special forces, natch.) The Galactic Enforcers are your generic space police. At least considering the relatively lawless nature of the galaxies.

The Plumbers and Galactic Enforcers sometimes work together to apprehend and extradite alien criminals.

* * *

The Rooter conspiracy will be explained in its own chapter, as I've altered them beyond recognition.


	2. Kevin's backstory and powers

Kevin's powers in the classic continuity (and I use "continuity" very loosely) were inconsistent. In OS he could absorb electricity, including the energy of the Omnitrix to give himself the power of transformation. In AF, again because Dwayne McDuffie never watched OS, his powers changed to absorbing physical substances because he was an alien species called "osmosians". Later the writers realized they'd made an unintentional retcon and tried to reconcile it by claiming absorbing electricity made Kevin go crazy and that's why he behaved differently in UAF. Then OV retconned osmosians to mutants, I guess? I don't have a clue what that's about.

His backstory is even more convoluted due to retcons, to the point where I have no clue what his backstory is even supposed to be. First he was some villain Ben met in New York, then his dad Devlin was Max's protege, Max was apparently supposed to be his god-father, then Devlin never existed? Again, I don't have a clue what that's about.

In the 2016 reboot, Kevin doesn't have any apparent superpowers. He does, however, receive Omnitrix plans in a dream and invents the Antitrix. Somehow. He also goes to school with Ben and picks on him, which is how they first met.

Yeah, so, I'm just gonna smash all that together and make something vaguely sensible out of it.

* * *

 **My idea:** Kevin has a superpower called "osmosis" that lets him arbitrarily absorb matter and energy. Absorbing electricity (or whatever) overloads his nervous system and causes insanity like sociopathy and paranoia. When he absorbed the "omni-energy" from the Omnitrix, his powers created the Antitrix as an unstable clone which gave him his signature transformation power.

Kevin inherited his superpowers from his father Devlin, who was a plumber and Max's protege. After Devlin died, Max became Kevin's godfather. Devlin's death was devastating for both of them: Max blamed himself for Devlin's death and retired, while Kevin blamed Max and never developed a positive relationship with his supposed god-father. His father's death and his frosty relationship with his step-father led to him acting out, such as picking on Ben at school. One summer his powers finally activated, he blew up his own house, upset his mom and step-dad, and ran away. His mother called Max for help. Max was on summer vacation with his grandchildren Ben and Gwen, but decided to take the Rustbucket on a search for Kevin. Using some old connections, Max was able to track Kevin down. Due to bad luck, Ben met Kevin first. Initially wary of his school bully, Kevin impressed Ben with his new superpowers (which others had found freakish, but not Ben) and the two became thick as thieves... until Kevin's deteriorating mental state jolted Ben back to reality. After a scuffle, Kevin absorbed the power of the Omnitrix and grew the Antitrix, upon which he christened himself the supervillain "Kevin 11" as a play on Ben's own "Ben 10." Ultimately, Kevin fled and Max revealed their relationship to a shocked Ben and Gwen.

The two watch-wearing boys faced off multiple times, with Ben repeatedly attempting and failing to appeal to Kevin's better nature. Ultimately, it was Gwen in her "Lucky Girl" alter-ego who found the solution: a magic spell that cleared Kevin's mind of the fog created by the misuse of his powers. The result was quite dramatic: Kevin broke down like the scared eleven-year-old boy he was, terrified of the sociopathic murderous monster he'd become while high on electricity.

The rest was history. Kevin joined Ben in becoming a crime-fighting superhero. He's learning about the plumbers and his family's history within the organization. He's thick as thieves with Ben: Ben's the first person to think Kevin's powers were cool rather than freakish, or really the first kid to become his friend period, which left a deep impression on the boy's psyche. Kevin is deeply sorry about the way way he bullied Ben in school, and often overcompensates by thoughtlessly going along with Ben's irresponsible trouble-making pastimes (much to Gwen's indignation).


	3. Anodites vs witches

Dwayne McDuffie (bless his heart) was showrunner for AF. He never watched OS, so AF introduced a number of unintentional retcons.

One of these retcons was that Gwen inherited her magical talent from her alien grandmother Verdona from planet Anodyne. In fact, initially all superpowers were retconned as being alien hybrids regardless of whether that was logistically feasible. While human/non-human hybrids were clearly implied to exist in OS (as shown by Gaterboy and Porcupine in OS E45 "Ready to Rumble"), the OS setting was a kitchen sink setting with both aliens and magical creatures existing side-by-side. Kevin's and Cooper's powers originally had no explanation in OS, and saying they're alien hybrids is more of a cop-out than anything else. It was especially ridiculous when AF initially suggested that Max was himself an alien all along.

 _Race Against Time_ also implied that Gwen's grandmother was deceased anyway.

I also never liked how Anodites were off-brand Star Sapphires. AF had this whole problem where it was aping _Justice League_ and _Legion of Superheroes_ , rather than continuing the themes of _Ben 10_ OS, which I really did not appreciate.

* * *

 **My idea:** Granny Verdona is 100% human. She's a retired magical girl who used to have her own crime-fighting career, under the alter-ego "Lucky Girl". She had no idea aliens existed until she was kidnapped by an alien robot who wanted to siphon her magic powers. She was rescued by Max and the two became buddies in crime-fighting. The two eventually fell in love, got married, and had kids.

Following in her granny's footsteps, Gwen became a magical girl herself and assumed the mantle of Lucky Girl. The popular _Lucky Girl_ franchise is loosely based on her and her granny's escapades, similar to _Super Alien Hero Buddy Adventures_. While Ben despises _Super Alien Hero Buddy Adventures_ for perceived identity theft, Gwen loves _Lucky Girl_ in the same way that Ben and Kevin love _Sumo Slammers_.


	4. Plumbers' Helpers, Rooters, and Amalgam Kids

I previously mentioned that AF unintentionally retconned the Plumbers into alien space police. This caused a cascade of issues, like forcing the plumber's kids introduced in the series (Alan, Manny, Helen, Pierce, possibly Michael too) to be human/alien hybrids regardless of the logistical difficulties. An oddity that was often pointed out was that Manny, Helen, and Pierce were all coincidentally orphans and Alan's parents were mysteriously absent from the show. I never thought this made a whole lot of sense. It might have made more sense under the initial "Hero Generation" pitch where they would have played a larger role in the plot, but in the final version their inclusion is more filler than anything else.

The Rooters were a ham-fisted retcon introduced in OV to retcon Kevin's and the Plumbers' Helpers backstories because those were already retconned by AF from whatever the status quo was in OS. As is typical of the seasonal rot that eventually afflicts all _Ben 10_ shows, their writing was horrible. Their goal was to kill Ben ever since he got the Omnitrix because he was somehow too dangerous to let live (despite Ben saving Earth literally dozens of times), but they went about it in the most inefficient and nonsensical way out of any villain in the franchise. 

There was also a forced reference to Marvel's Weapon Plus stories when Kevin was retroactively designated "Weapon XI" (obviously part of the wordplay that our protagonists' names constantly operate on) which implies that there were ten weapons before him but of course the significance of this was never explained. The Rooters using Kevin to turn themselves into alien hybrids is also basically the same as Doctor Animo's shtick. Why didn't they ever recruit Animo?

The irony is that "the plumbers are experimenting on kids to create supersoldiers" was actually a genius idea. It just makes sense for the plumbers to engage in experiments to give themselves superpowers and that would have explained why most of the plumber's kids we've seen in the series all had superpowers. Cooper was a technopath, Elena was bonded with nanochips (as retconned by the comic _Parallel Paradox_ ), Alan could change between human and pyronite forms (which is not a power possessed by either species), Kevin is an osmosian, etc.

* * *

 **My idea:** The Plumbers have a "Weapon Plus" project, ripped straight out of Marvel comics. This is why Cooper, Elena, Alan, and Kevin have superpowers despite otherwise appearing outwardly human.

I don't really know to handle Manny, Pierce, or Helen. My current working idea is that all three are still alien hybrids, but only Manny is a plumber's kid (on his father's side). Their parents were murdered by a sect of the Forever Knights in a racist pogrom, forcing them on the run until they met team Tennyson and got permanent homes in Bellwood. Or their parents could still be alive and living in Undertown, I don't know. They use advanced holographic projectors to pass for human and go to high school with Ben, similar to Nightcrawler from _X-Men: Evolution_.


End file.
